In the News (Mon 21 Jan 19)

EdwinSalpeter, the eminent astrophysicist who is professor of physics emeritus at Cornell, has turned his interest to medical issues in recent years.

Shelley Salpeter is a clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and a physician at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif., where Ormiston also is a physician.

To honor Salpeter's retirement after almost a half century at Cornell, the departments of astronomy and physics will host a public symposium, "Edwin E. Salpeter Celebration Day," to be held at the large conference room in the Biotechnology Building on the Cornell campus, Oct. 4.

Salpeter also is known for the "Salpeter function" ­ a theoretical expression for the numbers of stars of different masses among newly formed stars per unit volume of a galaxy.

Terzian explained that Salpeter used mathematical physics to explain nuclear synthesis, the rate of star formation, the interior of the planet Jupiter, accretion disks around fl holes and dark matter in the universe.

Salpeter has made many distinguished contributions in the fields of quantum electrodynamics, nuclear theory, energy production in stars, and theoretical astrophysics.

In quantum field theory, the equation which he derived in collaboration with Bethe to describe the relativistic interaction of two participles, and which bears their names, has served as a model both to suggest and to test new hypotheses for untangling the mysterious new world of elementary particles.

Biography: EdwinSalpeter has been at Cornell for a considerable period, so he has worked off and on in various subareas of astrophysics and also in other fields.

Galaxy pairs are one example of this, where the first input is observing the hydrogen gas in the galaxies with radio telescopes (Arecibo, Very Large Array, and Australia) plus an optical follow-up at Palomar, but this input then has to be fed into calculations of orbits and of dynamical friction.

In two quite different areas Salpeter has also been involved in the study of synapses in neurobiology and in epidemiology and Meta-analysis in Medicine.

In 1951 Salpeter explained how the ‘triple-alpha’ reaction could make carbon from helium in stars.

He then investigated the effects of nuclear physics on stellar evolution and derived the initial mass function (the rate of formation of stars of different mass in the Galaxy) from stellar evolution and the observed abundances of stars of different luminosities.

Salpeter emigrated from Austria to Australia in his teens and received his BSc and MSc at the University of Sydney.

Hans Bethe, a titan of physics and conscience of science, dies at age 98(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-08-20)

Eminent astrophysicist, Edwin E. Salpeter, who arrived at Cornell in 1949 to study under Bethe, said of his former mentor, "He brought clarity to an amazing number of fields of science -- especially in astrophysics -- where he had to work in the face of uncertainty."

Despite the turmoil of history, Bethe remained committed to the idea of physics as a thing of beauty leading to discovery and understanding, a quest that he called "the spirit of physics." It was a spirit enunciated by his famously optimistic phrase "I can do that," always said in the face of opposition or adversity.

Salpeter noted that Bethe's optimism sprang from knowing how to use the minimum mathematical complexity compatible with each problem he faced.

Salpeter and colleagues examined the development of tolerance to the effects of regular ß2-agonist therapy in patients with asthma (1).

This phenomenon may be explained by a higher degree of ß2-adrenoceptor intrinsic activity in the former compared to the latter, whereby prolonged 24-hour receptor occupancy would result in enhanced agonist-induced receptor down-regulation and desensitization of response (5).

Thus, while it is tempting to evaluate mean data from the meta- analysis of Salpeter and colleagues, it is more clinically relevant to consider individual responses, particularly as susceptibility to tolerance is genetically determined by ß2-adrenoceptor polymorphism.

www.annals.org /cgi/eletters/140/10/802 (621 words)

Newswise(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-08-20)

The findings are based on a Cornell University-Stanford University meta-analysis (a study of other previously published studies), which pooled the results of 30 clinical trials of HRT with almost 27,000 women.

Salpeter is a professor of physics emeritus at Cornell and the 1997 Crafoord Prize laureate who has turned his interest to medical issues in recent years.

However, an earlier survey, the Nurses' Health Study, says Shelley Salpeter, "was a large prospective study that found that women who started treatment within two years of menopause had a total mortality risk of 0.63 that of nonusers.

Millions of women abandoned hormone therapy after the WHI findings were published in July of 2002, but most physicians still recommend its use in women who have hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms.

In this study, Salpeter, who is a professor emeritus at Cornell University, and daughter Shelley Salpeter, MD, of Stanford University, analyzed trials involving almost 27,000 women followed for an average of 4.5 years.

Most of the studies were conducted between 1990 and 2002, and all compared various outcomes among hormone users and nonusers.

Ed Salpeter emigrated from Austria to Australia in his teens and received his B.Sc.

He worked in quantum electrodynamics and nuclear physics with Hans A. Bethe, with whom he wrote a famous monograph on relativistic atomic physics.

He then investigated the effects of nuclear physics on stellar evolution and derived the initial mass function, i.e., the rate of formation of stars of different mass in the Galaxy, from stellar evolution and the observed abundances of stars of different luminosities.

Hormone Replacement Therapy: HRT could have more benefits than risks when started early in menopause, August 2, 2004(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-08-20)

The first author of the study, which was published in the July 2004 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine (2004;19:7), is his daughter, Shelley R. Salpeter, MD, a clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and a physician at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California.

In fact, heart attacks could even be increased in this older age group as a result of an increased risk for blood clots.

These other benefits include a 35% reduction in hip fracture and new-onset diabetes mellitus and a 60% reduction in recurrent urinary tract infections (which can lead to fatal sepsis).

Led by Dr. EdwinSalpeter, a professor of physics emeritus at Cornell, the study appears to contradict the findings of a pair studies that made headlines last year, but this new study's conclusion of reduced risk is based on women younger than those studied in the Women's Health Initiative.

Shelley Salpeter, a clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and daughter of the senior author says the current study finding is similar to the results of the Nurses' Health Study, which took place before the Women's Health Initiative.

The authors conclude that each woman should make the decision regarding hormone replacement on an individual basis, taking into consideration her age, the degree of bothersome postmenopausal symptoms and her underlying health-risk factors.

Over the past six years, Bartol and Dr. Joel Stiles, with theoretical input from EdwinSalpeter (Stiles and Salpeter are at Cornell University), have written the MCell simulation program, which is capable of simulating microscopic cellular processes.

More specifically, their group together with Miriam Salpeter (Cornell University) is using the software to study how neurotransmitters diffuse and activate receptors in synapses between different cells.

MCell is a collaborative effort between the Terry Sejnowski lab at the Salk Institute, and the Miriam Salpeter lab at Cornell University.

Noting that the composition and several other properties of the Arches cluster resemble those of other regions in the Milky Way, Figer suggests that stars throughout the galaxy may adhere to the same limit.

Veteran astrophysicist EdwinSalpeter of Cornell University says that it's plausible that the Arches cluster result could apply to the whole galaxy.

One idea is that the radiation emitted by a nascent star pushes away materialespecially elements heavier than heliumthat would otherwise fall onto it.

"Almost all the scientifically valid studies we examined associated continuous beta-agonist use by asthma patients with a decreased bronchodilator response to subsequent beta-agonist administration, and with increased airway inflammation compared to placebo use," said Shelley Salpeter.

Most of these "poor-quality studies" that were eliminated from the meta-analysis, the three researchers say, also turned out to involve conflicts of interest because the studies were funded by pharmaceutical companies, because researchers had financial ties to the industry, or both.

"If you want to push continuous use of beta-agonists, you'll find plenty of published studies to back your point of view," Shelley Salpeter said.